Hi All!
I have recently returned from a conference(about parasites) in Newcastle (NE of England, near the sea). So there are many interesting pictures to show you. I had a fun time learning more about parasites, and all the older gentlemen of the society thought my poster was wonderful. It was an awful lot of socialization, though. Today I just hung out at home and planted some seeds, did chores, and drew some pictures for folks.
Here's the River Tyne, flowing through Newcastle:
yes, there ARE alot of bridges. I remember 7 offhand, there may have been more...
This is the famous Gateshead Millenium Bridge!
It is a pedestrian/bicycle bridge, you can see the walkway sweep around the right side of the photo there. To allow ships to pass underneath, the whole bridge tips, to the left in the photo. The previous photo was taken while I stood on this bridge. And yes, it was as cool as it looks. Cooler even. I have ALOT more bridge pictures, if anyone wants to see them leave a comment.
Let's play a game. What is wrong with this picture?
If you said 'the van driving down the middle of the road', sorry, but you are wrong. That is a normal, legal traffic pattern here. The correct answer was 'there are shadows' because this indicates that the sun is shining, which as we all know doesn't occur in England.
After those lovely bridge photos, I bring you this:
What, you ask, is this horrifying visage? well, in the building where the conference lectures took place, there was a large (8ft?), circular, concave mirror. As you walk toward it, you appear very distant and upside down. As you approach, you disappear! Then, SUDDENLY, you reappear, right-side-up and large! It is very surprising, and challenging to walk quickly up to it without flinching! the 'targeting reticule'-looking thing over my eye simply marks the centre of the mirror. I took several interesting photos in the mirror, all of them as bizarre as the above monstrosity!
Tune in next time for: "Keeping drunk students out of the garden: a synthesis of modern techniques"
It looks like a big horseshoe, mainly because there are limited bridges to cross the River Aire, on the other side of which is B&Q. However, once I was about 1/3 of the way there, the roadsigns stopped making sense. They advertised roads that just didn't seem to appear on the map, and the road I wanted was not listed on the sign! But, thank heavens, the British love them some football, and Elland Road stadium was advertised on ALL the road signs. This stadium just happens to be close to B&Q. Win. So I just followed the stadium signs. My actual route was something like this:
On the way back, I again looked at the map, then realized as soon as I pulled out that it had been a futile effort. The road I was going to take was not marked on the signs. But Headingly stadium was, and that is near my house (relatively) so once again I set off following the stadium signs. And neither times did I make a single wrong turn. So I guess the moral of the story is to know what stadiums are near your destination, and just follow the signs...the roads in Leeds are notoriously poorly signed, its not just me!
